Travel
information in Mumbai
Air
The Bombay airport is the busiest airport in India. Most of the major International airlines fly into Bombay. Many times you can fly into Bombay and out from Delhi for the same price. There are several flights a day to the major cities in India.
There are two airports in Bombay- the domestic airport, called Santa Cruz, and the international airport, named Sahar. When taking a flight you should make sure you go to the correct airport. Many people make this mistake. Both airports are north of the downtown, about 26 km from the center city. Every 15 minutes there are shuttle buses between the two airports. There are airport buses every half hour to the airport from the Air India building at Nariman Point. Taxis from downtown can take two hours to reach the airport, but usually take 45 minutes. From Juhu Beach it takes about a half hour to get to the airport. The Air India office at Nariman Point can be very crowded.
Some flights from Bombay are Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Delhi, Madras, Madurai, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Varanasi,and Vishakapatnam.
There are clean comfortable retiring rooms at the Domestic terminal for a double room and a dorm bed.
Rail There are three different long distance train stations in Bombay. Central Railway trains depart from Victoria Terminus (Bombay VT), in the center of the city, for the east and south. A few trains also depart to northern Rajasthan and Delhi from here. It is a 15-minute ride from the Colaba area. Victoria a station has a very good Foreign Tourist Bureau from which you can get tourist quota tickets. They are very helpful in making an itinerary and providing good information. You have to first get an authorization slip from the tourist information booth on the main railway station concourse and then go to the tourist counter in the Computerised Reservations System Building office. You can make a reservation for any train leaving from any of the Bombay stations. Counters I and 2 are set aside specifically for foreign tourists. They also sell Indrail passes here.
Bombay Central Station is the headquarters of Western Railways. It is a few km north of the center of the city. You can get trains here that go north to Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi. You can take a local train from Churchgate Station to get here.
The third long-distance station is Dadar, in the northern part of the city. Some of the Central and Western Railway trains stop here. You can get a local train from here to the downtown. Some trains to Calcutta leave from Kurla station, near the airport. Getting to these stations with luggage can be difficult by public transportation.
Churchgate Station, near the centre of the downtown, is mainly a commute station. The Foreign Tourist Bureau and foreign reservation counters are on the mezzanine floor in the CRS building next to this station, next to the Government of. India Tourist Office. This office is open Monday to Saturday. To reserve a train here you first get a slip from the man sitting in the back of the room, and then purchase your ticket. If you want to take a night train, you usually have to purchase the ticket on the morning the train departs. If you are taking a morning train, you come and purchase the ticket one day before. You cannot usually purchase a tourist quota ticket a few days in advance. If you get off one of the trains at Churchgate Station, coming into the city, the CRS building is to your left as your head toward the main entrance. You must pay for your ticket in foreign currency or show a recent encashment certificate.
There are many trains coming in and out of Bombay every day. The superfast Rajdhani Express from Bombay Central goes to Delhi. The Frontier Mail to Delhi is also fast. The Dodar-Madras Express and Bombay-Madras Mail are the fastest trains to Madras. If you want to go north to Mount Abu or Udaipur, you have to take a train to Ahmedabad and from there get a train or bus to these places. The Saurashtra Mail departs to Dwarka via Vadodara (5 hr) and Ahmedabad (9 1/2 hr). The Punjab Mail departs daily to Agra. The Jalna Exp. is a direct train to Aurangabad. The Gitanjali Exp and Calcutta Mail depart to Calcutta. To Bangalore is the Udyan Exp. For Guntakal (for Hampi) is the Madras Mail.The Kanniyakumari Exp goes to Thiruvananthapuram. The Mahanagiri Exp departs daily to Varanasi via Allahabad and the Bombay-Varanasi-Ratnagiri Exp departs to Varanasi via Allahabad on Mon, Wed, and Thu.
There is a rail reservation counter at Bombay's international airport, open in the morning, to coincide with international flight arrivals.
There are trains to Agra, Ahmedabad,Aurangabad,Bangalore,Calcutta, Delhi,Hyderabad, Jaipur, Madras, Mangalore, Nasik, Pune, Ujjain, Trivandrum, and Varanasi.
Bus The Long Distance Bus Station is opposite Bombay Central Train Station. The State bus companies' offices for Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka are here. The MTDC luxury buses are the best buses. You can make advance reservation for some luxury buses. It is a very hectic place, so you should arrive for your bus as early as possible. To make a reservation can take a couple of hours.
Most Maharashtrian state buses depart and arrive at the ASIAD bus stand, beside the main street in Dadar. It is a thirty minute, to one hour taxi ride from the downtown. You can get a local train downtown from the Dadar railway station. To get to this station you walk over Tilak Marg bridge.
Most of the private bus companies operate out of Ballard Pier in the Fort area.
You can book MTDC buses at the MT'DC office on Madame Cama Rd. You can book morning buses to Nasik and Mahabaleswara at the India Government tourist office, 123 M Karve Rd, Churchgate. It is usually best to leave Bombay by train.
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